Friday, April 1, 2011

Witches, Crocodiles, Tiny Countries, and Sharks

1. Upon advice of a friend, consulted Lord Wiki about Rosaleen Norton. I had heard of her before, but don't know much about her. I kind of read quickly; maybe I'll read more slowly later. Norton seems like a fascinating woman. She was an occultist and called herself a witch. Pagans these days face some prejudice, but if Norton was alive now she'd probably be grateful for the tolerance she'd encounter. Back when she was a witch, witchcraft was illegal. That didn't change in Australia until 1971.

2. Read article about some type of tourist attraction where people will be dangled over a crocodile. It's going to be in Cairns. I don't know how I feel about that. They claim it's perfectly safe. I probably believe that, although I think the owners of Jurassic Park said the same thing.

Phillipa Woodward is one of the operators of this tourist attraction. He reminds me a bit of John Hammond when he says, This will not be opportunity to tease or aggravate the crocodile....There will be no way that Goliath will be able to leap up and grab anyone and it will be impossible for anyone to fall in.

The tourists will be 4 meters over the crocodile. I looked up the conversion for that, and it's about thirteen feet. I guess that's not too bad. But still. I think it might be somewhat aggravating for the crocodile to have people dangling in and out of his living space.

3. Learned that the potential new New South Wales Labor Leader has a gay son. This is John Robertson, the guy Paul Keating doesn't like. Robertson's son came out of the closet last year. Robertson seems pretty supportive, so that's good. Maybe he can talk some sense into the Prime Minister, although the article doesn't mention gay marriage. I don't know if he goes that far in his support.

4. Read article about Yang Hengjun. He's supposedly free to return to Sydney. Hopefully, that's true. He told friends that he's fine and has been with friends. But friends might be a code word for secret police.

That would be kind of funny (and lovely) if he truly was totally fine and was really with friends. I doubt that's true though. Something seems a bit fishy.

5. Read article about Oprah revealing some of her negative experiences about her Australian trip. It sounds as if people are upset because she admitted to not enjoying the huge crowds in Melbourne. Although I'm not a huge Oprah fan, personally I don't see anything wrong with what she said. I think it would be unnerving to have thousands of people screaming for you and worshipping you, even if you are a huge celebrity. I'm sure she's thankful for the attention. But you can be thankful for something, and somewhat disturbed by it at the same time.

6. Learned that Fiona Byrne isn't the only New South Wales Green Party person to support the Israel boycott. There's also Lee Rhiannon. And she's been voted into the Senate.

Now the official stance of the Green Party towards Israel seems pretty benign. The article says their official policy is to support the rights of the Palestinian peoples to statehood through the creation of a viable state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, based on the pre-1967 borders and the right of all peoples in the region to peace. That seems very fair and rational. The article though says that some members of the Green Party support a movement called BDS. Supposedly, the BDS doesn't support the two countries solution.

7. Looked at the BDS website. I want to see the information for myself. I've read through the site. I can't really tell what exactly the BDS wants. In one part they say they're wanting Israel to end it's occupation and colonization of all Arab lands.Does that refer to all of Israel or just Gaza and the West Bank. All Arab Lands cracks me up a bit. The Arab people have how many countries? And some of them are huge countries! They have so much land. Yet some of them can't deal with the Jews having a tiny country of their own.

This website provides a perspective about the size of Israel. It's so tiny compared to the other countries in the Middle East.

8. Talked with Tim about Australian actors in Finding Nemo. This evolved out of a discussion about Barry Humphries. We were trying to remember which Australian actors were in Nemo besides Humphries. I remembered Geoffrey Rush, of course. I thought Rove was in it, but couldn't remember who he played. Maybe a crab? I knew Erica Bana played one of the sharks, but couldn't remember what his name was at first. I just said that Croatian-Australian actor. Tim asked about the dentist. I'm pretty sure I remember learning that, but now I've forgotten. I'll go look it up in a minute.

9. Visited a Korean shopping center. It reminded me of being in Australia, like around Chinatown. Maybe Paddy's Market. We ate at the food court; that reminded me a lot of the food courts in Sydney because they had washable dishes instead of disposable ones.

12. Thought about my character on the Harry Potter website thing, and how she's very much like myself, except much younger. As I'm obsessed with Australia, even though I'm not Australian. She's obsessed with wizards even though she's just a Muggle. I do have to wonder why I chose a character like that. I could have chosen someone right in the middle of the action. Instead I chose to be the OTHER again. A psychologist could probably have fun with that.

The funny thing is I DID make her Australian. Well, she's British with Australian ancestry. And she's hiding out in Australia. So while I didn't give myself magical powers, I did give myself a UK/Aussie heritage.

13. Loved one of my Facebook Friend's new icons. It says, I'm an Everyday Australia Green. This is in response to Julia Gillard claiming the Green Party is out of touch with everyday Australians. I think Julia Gillard is out of touch with everyday Australians. It's all a matter of perspective, I believe.

14. Read article which says Tony Abbott is accusing Gillard and Bob Brown of having a fake fight. That's funny, because I just created a fake fight for the Potter thing. I wrote it out, but haven't posted it yet. Anyway, it's totally fine to make a fake fight for fiction. It wouldn't be so great if it was done in politics. That would be a bit manipulative.

Although Abbott's accusation is creative and interesting, I'm doubting it's true. I think Gillard is speaking out against the Green Party so she can make sure people know she's not as far left as them. It's kind of like us being unschoolers. Sometimes I feel compelled to make sure that people know we're not one of the radical extreme unschooling families. Oh they're fine. That's who they are. But WE are not like that. No way.

15. Realized that my Facebook friend got her icon from Bob Brown. He's asking Australian Greens to use it as their icon. If I was Australian, I'd do it.

16. Turned off my computer and then later realized I forgot to publish my post. Oops.

About Me

Hello! You are probably here, because you've seen me commenting on your blog and you're wondering..."Who is this strange woman?" Or you've been reading my blog and am wondering "Who's writing this weird stuff?" I do like that you're looking at my profile though, because that means you're curious. I like curious people. AND you're giving me attention. I like attention.
So thanks for visiting! I hope you're having a safe, healthy, happy, and silly day. Or night. You might be reading this at night. I hope you're not up because you had a scary dream...or have chronic insomnia.